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The World (test auto updater and "game")


Rick
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Wondering if anyone can help test this out. It works from start to end for me. .NET 4.0 is required as the launcher/updater uses it.

 

I'm creating a game that has an auto updater with it in hopes that I can build the game over time while still allowing people to play along as I build it. The setup file for the game updater/launcher can be found http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/files/file/316-the-world-updater/ .

 

The above will only install a .NET launcher program. For those wanting to know exactly how this works I'll explain:

 

The launcher program looks for a version.txt file in the base directory to get the clients current version. If that file doesn't exist the version use is 0.

 

The launcher then calls a web service passing in the clients version. The web service will query a database table to get the next version greater than the clients version. This will return the http path to the rar file.

 

The launcher then downloads the rar file to the game directory and extracts the files to a temp directory which it'll create and delete when it's finished.

 

It will then loop through the temp directory and merge the files to the games base directory. For pak files it'll actually open the pak files up and find the same pak files in the games directory and update/add them. This means when I make updates I can add only the new files or updated files to existing pak files and they'll be added/updated instead of having to send the entire pak file with no changes to some of the files inside it each time. These are all password protected as well.

 

The process repeats until no new versions are returned from the web service.

 

 

Note for uninstall. The launcher has an uninstall which will only uninstall the launcher program and it's files and not any of the files that were added by the launcher/updater program for the game itself. For those you can just delete all the files or the entire folder to uninstall it. I still need to work on a way for the uninstaller to delete files that were added after the fact. Using Inno Setup for this.

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@gamecreator, ah good call. Do I really need an install for that or a DLL in that directory only? In my C:Program FilesOpenAL dir it just has a oalinst.exe in there so if there is a DLL not sure where it puts it. I'd prefer to just add the dll in the dir personally. On that note I forgot the msvc dll(s) also. It'll give me a chance to test the updating feature as I should be able to just make a new rar version and it should put those DLL's in that dir.

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Very odd. So the application was able to make the web service call to get the filename. I simply then use the WebClient object to download the file asynchronously. That's all .NET stuff so not sure why it wouldn't be downloading it. hmmm

 

Also, if a couple of you would be able to leave it installed for a day or 2, then I'll make an update and see if it updated the files correctly.

 

[sYSTEM]/OpenAL32.dll <-- "router" OpenAL library

[sYSTEM]/wrap_oal.dll <-- "wrapper" OpenAL library

 

Looks like 2 files get installed in the system directory for openAL. I'll try adding these to the game dir as that should work. I guess I might be able to uninstall my openAL to test with.

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Very odd. So the application was able to make the web service call to get the filename. I simply then use the WebClient object to download the file asynchronously. That's all .NET stuff so not sure why it wouldn't be downloading it. hmmm

 

Clackdor try to run the launcher as administrator (right mouse), if that dont work then try to deactivate temporarily your anti virus/firewall.

 

Thats my ideas so far.

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Do most games require this sort of thing if they download things? If they don't I'd really like to not require admin if possible. I wouldn't have thought a simple downloading of data would require admin.

 

 

@Clackdor, where did you install the launcher app?

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C:/Program Files/ is protected (has higher security (UAC)) from Windows, i still prefer something like c:/games/ or in my case d:/games/. You can use a manifest file to get more rights for your application but i dont which you need.

Yep, that's why everyone is just installing straight to the C drive nowadays.

My job is to make tools you love, with the features you want, and performance you can't live without.

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Thanks Furbolg. I guess at the least it would be nice if a prompt comes up for Clackdor to grant access. I'll have to look at how to tell Win 7 to do that. I would have thought it would do it automatically. My guess is in his case it was in an endless loop of trying to download, then failing, then checking again if the version if current, and retrying to download, rinse and repeat.

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I'll give http://www.aneef.net...n-managed-code/ a try tonight so that it prompts for permission when the app starts.

 

 

Rick, I love your programmers art on the mouse. Made me chuckle...

 

:) yeah it's so bad. Tonight I'm going to make an update for this where I add 4 dll's. 2 for visual studio C++ runtimes and 2 for openAL in the directory. Also going to change that crappy mouse cursor some since that's in a password protected pak file. This should be a good test to make sure those updates work correctly. I'm not sure who all kept this installed but if you could keep it installed for a day or 2 and help me make sure those updates work correctly that would be very helpful.

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About your game, yea please change the mouse, its flip so fast on my computer that i get crazy but looks good so far.

 

Yeah, I change the mouse based on picking with the models themsevles, which proves to be troublesome with trees and bushes with many gaps in them. Might have to make a rectangle body around them and pick that instead to ease the changing.

 

You create a new Diablo ?

 

I don't really know what this will become yet. I really like that camera view in games with the off scale of things. I was leaning towards more of a building game, but not 100% sold on anything yet. I might just let it evolve and see what happens :)

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I don't really know what this will become yet. I really like that camera view in games with the off scale of things. I was leaning towards more of a building game, but not 100% sold on anything yet. I might just let it evolve and see what happens smile.png

 

Maybe a 3D Terraria ? Or a another small RPG ? crafting your weapons etc. smile.png

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I really really want Zaphos to get his 3D characters and accessories going because that would make RPG with crafting very viable.

 

That terrain is gridded out, if you will. I did have plans on letting players "buy" land tile by tile. With this land they could build walls to make their homes and craft other things. They would also be able to attack anything anytime, but they would only be powerful if they met thier needs of food, water, rest, spirit. This would be online. I think I'm still leaning towards that. I just want to try and get a community going and see how it plays out.

 

I hate levels in RPG's. Once you get to the top there is nothing more. Then the level cap gets increased more and more. I prefer to make the player always keep up a certain amount of well-being instead. When all your needs are met then you are at your strongest. When needs start to slip you get weaker. When you start teh game your overall well-being is low. You have to build up your food, drinking, rest (with housing not actual sleeping), spirit, entertainment. All those combined make up your overall well-being which make your more powerful. Clans can form to combine their resources which are used in each members well-being, but they always have this goal of keeping it up. You never get to max level and stop like in most RPG's. Even when a person is not logged in they would be using resources (probably less though). I think this will create a more real economy and a real fight for resources. It'll also bring people together. In short it's more like real life.

 

The key will be to balancing how much time in the game goes to the well-being and how much to battles and other things.

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Good point Rick, what you speak about is the item progression (spiral/twister). At a point you need more better items to have a progress, look at world of warcraft player have 110k - 180k health, its ridiculous.

 

I think you could create an MMO style game but with gear that dont make you stronger (more strength/ability/spell). Instead you can just get better looking armor/weapons (style) like in Guild Wars.

 

Or as you already mentioned, player could harvest resources and use them to create their own unique places. It could be like Minecraft but with a MMO Background. It would be very cool if you can build your own castle (needs some time) and your "enemies" can destroy it with a trebuchet or ballista :)

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